Albion-Connected Shark Research Lurks in Major Exhibit

Carrier and Saville’s study is cited at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry

August 8, 2014 | By John Perney

Paper co-author Andrea Lindley Caplea, '99, a Chicago resident, recently visited the museum, noticed Jeff Carrier's name and the research project she contributed toward as a student, and snapped the above photo.

Are you a part of the Albion College family in Chicagoland? Are you a Brit planning to visit the Windy City in the next few weeks? What do you think about sharks?

No, there haven’t been any great whites spotted in Lake Michigan. But you only have until Labor Day, September 1, to see research by Albion scientists—with contributions from former students—highlighted as part of a major exhibit.

“It is the only systematic study of mating behavior and reproduction of any shark species anywhere in the world,” said Carrier, who co-authored the ’02 paper with Harold “Wes” Pratt of Florida’s Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium; geneticist and Albion professor of biology Ken Saville; and alumni Andrea Lindley Caplea, ’99, and Nora Maries, ’00.

The sharks examined were part of a long-term study done in the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys. “With nurse sharks, the mating often occurs in very shallow water – so it’s very visible,” Carrier said. The DNA analysis to demonstrate multiple paternity was carried out as part of a faculty/student research project on the Albion campus.

Jeff Carrier

Carrier, whose interest in sharks goes back to his teenage years diving and surfing off the northeast coast of Florida, funded a lot of his own early research before eventually collaborating on several projects with the National Geographic Society. His work has been featured many times over the years during Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” (which this year begins August 10), but these days Carrier is among a growing number of both scientists and nonscientists who question the programming strategy of the popular series.

“Shark Week doesn’t help a bit,” he said. “The scientific community has been dismayed for quite some time about the sensationalism. A lot of the shows now are made by independent producers, and a lot of scientists won’t work with Discovery.”

“These are large fish that have long been construed as a major pest and predator, but in fact they are a vital part of the ecosystem,” Carrier said. “They’re top-level predators. They eliminate the weak, the diseased, and they help keep any marine ecosystem intact.”

Overfishing is taking its toll on their numbers, however, and their natural habits don’t help matters.

“Sharks have a terrible reproductive strategy,” Carrier said. “They grow very slowly. They mature very late in their lives. And they don’t have many offspring. Animals with that kind of strategy that become a target of commercial fisheries are not going to withstand heavy fishing pressure over time.”

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